Awakenings Parent Guide

Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro) is a middle-aged man who has been in a coma since he contracted encephalitis lethargica as a child. When Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) is made responsible for his care, the man of medicine begins experimenting with different options that may help to awaken Leonard (and others suffering from the same malady) from a decades long sleep. This movie is based on a true story.

Parent Movie Reviewby Kerry Bennett

Imagine waking up to discover you’ve lost 10, 20 or even 30 years of your life. The young image you remember from the mirror is wrinkled and gray. Your family is grown or gone. While you slept, the world changed and left you behind.

For most of us, it would be terrifying.

The chance of those reactions seems to be the furthest thing from Dr. Malcolm Sayer’s (Robin Williams) mind when he begins a new drug therapy on catatonic patients in the summer of 1969. After spending years in a research lab, Dr. Sayer has hired on at a chronic care facility where he has to interact with actual patients and an assistant (Eleanor Costello). Reserved and awkward around other human beings, Malcolm struggles through the initial days dealing with the mostly comatose survivors of an encephalitis epidemic.

However, despite his discomfort with people, Malcolm finds it disturbing that many of the facility’s health care providers do little more than, in their words, “feed and water” their patients. As he begins working more closely with his caseload, Dr. Sayer discovers what he believes are hints of mental activity in his some of charges. After attending a presentation on a new drug therapy designed to help Parkinson’s disease sufferers, Malcolm begs hospital officials (John Heard) to let him try the treatment on a few of his patients.

His first choice is Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro). With permission from Leonard’s aging mother (Ruth Nelson), Malcolm begins administering increasingly high doses of the drug that eventually awakens Leonard from his unresponsive stupor. In time, other patients also respond to the therapy.

Awakenings, based on the book by British-American neurologist Oliver Sacks, offers an inspiring look at the doctor who refused to accept the status quo for his patients. But as with many medical experiments, setbacks happen. One unexpected side effect is the patients’ reaction to the loss of so many years. Others experience personality changes as their bodies develop a resistance to the therapy.

Yet while many consider the trial to be a failure, these patients teach the doctors a great lesson about living. Even though they are awake, many of the medical staff fail to fully engage in life, wandering around in their own kind of stupor. This seems especially true for Dr. Sayer who is so tentative about human relationships that he retreats to his books and plants whenever he can.

Though the film may not end with the kind of happily ever after conclusion audiences love, the story’s deeper message of “waking up” to the life we have may be one reason this film earned a Best Picture Award nomination at the 1991 Academy Awards.

The film’s setting in a mental institution where patients occasionally lash out verbally and physically. As well, infrequent profanities, a strong sexual expletive and brief depictions of drinking and cigarette use make this story unsuitable for children. However for older teens and adults who may be sleep walking their way through their existence, Awakenings opens viewers eyes to the miracles of everyday life.

About author

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.

AwakeningsRating & Content Info

Why is Awakenings rated PG-13?Awakenings is rated PG-13 by the MPAA

Violence:
Patients occasionally thrash, scream or yell out. While not intentionally violent, these depictions may be too intense for younger viewers. A man is pushed to the ground by an angry patient. A patient is confronted by several people and carried back upstairs while trying to leave a medical facility.

Sexual Content:
A man’s eyes follow a girl wearing a short skirt.

Language:
The script includes infrequent profanities, terms of Deity and one use of a strong sexual expletive.

Alcohol / Drug Use:
Some smoking and alcohol use are depicted. High doses of prescription medicine are given to patients during a drug therapy procedure.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

More parents' guide for Awakenings after the break...

Awakenings Parents' Guide

Accurately depicting medical procedures and results doesn’t always happen (ask any nurse who works in an emergency room about current medical dramas). How true to life do you think Awakenings is? How difficult would it be for patients to go out dancing after being mostly wheelchair or bed bound for years? Would it take time to regain their ability to talk?

What would you find the most difficult to deal with if you awakened out of a comatose state after many years? Would you mourn lost youth? The changes in your family? Or be uncomfortable with advancements and changes in the world?

How does Leonard’s mother feel about having her son receive the drug therapy? Are her fears realistic? Would you be willing to participate in experimental drug therapy? Was Leonard’s awakening a positive or negative event for his mother?

How do staff members treat the patients differently after their awakening?